338: It isn't just social media... let me repeat

Every time I do a solo episode about content marketing beyond social media, it is one of the most popular episodes and I get the most comments on them..

So here it is. This episode is about building a proper content ecosystem, not just relying on social media to carry your whole business, and where email, blogs, podcasts and other channels fit into the picture.

If you've been feeling exhausted by the social media game or wondering why followers aren't turning into clients, give it a listen!

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ Why social media is top of funnel, not your whole funnel, and why people bounce between channels before they ever convert

✨ How to build an email list that doesn't depend on social media reach, and why nurturing it matters more than only emailing when you have something to sell

✨ Why social media is a discoverability channel too, feeding into SEO and AI search, not just a place to post for its own sake

✨ Why content is bigger than social media (lead magnets, webinars, blogs, downloads), and how to widen your definition of what counts

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 338, and it isn't just about social media. Please let me repeat, we're talking about content marketing, not just social media marketing. Welcome to the Content Queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur, storyteller, digital nomad, creator of Content Bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen with over 10 years experience in marketing.

This podcast is here to help you create your aligned and, quote-unquote, perfect content marketing strategy by blending storytelling and strategy. So let's get into it. All right. Every time I do an episode or I have someone on the show or I have a conversation in my DMs, usually they will say... Well, sorry, go back to that.

Usually, that's the most popular episode, but usually anyone in my DMs will say, "Oh, I just wanna learn a little bit more about content being more than just social media. I really enjoyed those episodes." So we're gonna talk about it because you obviously like them, you're listening to them, and you're asking for them.

So- It must be a [00:01:00] sign that maybe you are a little bit exhausted from the social media game, which is so fair. So it's about creating this cycle of ecosystems and creating a content marketing plan that works for you so you're not always exhausted about social media. You can actually enjoy it and get out of it what it's there to do.

It's there to be a social media platform. It's there to help you reach a copious amount of people that you may not be able to reach in ever- any other ways organically without paying money. Now, of course, social media's changing a lot now, so the sort of pay-to-play concept is quite prevalent and quite obvious.

But in saying that, when, you know, when was there a time that you could get at least 200 people looking at your content? You know, it's still... Whilst, yes, the 200 view jail or whatever they call it on TikTok is real, but you are showing up and you are sharing, and it's not just about the views or the immediate success of [00:02:00] social media that we should be chasing.

It's that long term. I've had clients that have been asked to appear on TV, to do, um, yeah, podcasting, have had opportunities, and it comes down to them, seeing them actively on social media and building that brand. And I wanted to give a little background on this because when I do strategy, it is not just for social media.

At the moment, I'm running my live round of boot camp. We're just about to enter in the last week as I record this, and if you wanna join the next round, I'm going to invite five people, and I've already got one space gone. So there's four opportunities for you to come in, and as part of that, we do hot seat coaching, where I'm live doing the strategy with the client.

So I'll be sitting here, chitty-chatting, filling out their strategy as we're going through it. All of the people within this strategy have a primary channel that is not just social media. So we have one that is YouTube, which you could argue is a form of social media, but the whole point is to create long-form content.

One of them is [00:03:00] a school community, and the other is a mailing list. Now, I would argue that everyone should have a mailing list, and actually all three of these people do 'cause it's essential, and it's not just a cute email that I'm gonna send. Like, it's, it's data. It's how you have active communication with your clients and potential clients and all the things.

But the common theme in everything I do, I've had- bookings for discovery calls at the moment, and the one thing that I'm talking about is, yes, they'll come at me with social media, but I always say when I create strategies, I always try to create some sort of primary channel that isn't relying on social media, so we can create that ecosystem.

And whenever I do my base price for my retainers, it always will include some sor- sort of channel that is not just social media. So that's a little bit of background to set up the scene for this episode. And the first point that I wanna go over is social media is top of funnel. It is not the whole complete [00:04:00] funnel, right?

You may have heard me in the last solo episode talk about how the funnel is not linear, and people will be, like, going back and forth between your worlds to, like, find out who you are and more about you. But the goal isn't to keep people stuck on social media. It is to move them further down the funnel.

Even if they do come back to your social media to communicate with you, and I talked about this in my last episode, but it's so interesting how I now have an example of this. I had a client that voice noted me to tell me how interesting it was with their funnel, and someone saw them on LinkedIn, read their post, like, "Ooh, this is cool.

I resonate with what they're saying." Went to their website, read a blog, then read another blog, then went back to LinkedIn, stalked their LinkedIn some more. Noticed there was a mutual connection, so reached out to that mutual connection, asked them, "What do you think of this person?" And then when they said, "Amazing," then went back to her LinkedIn and messaged her on LinkedIn to book in a time to chat So social media, yes, was [00:05:00] like almost the bottom and the top of that funnel, but there were so many things in between that.

And also what we were talking about is how interesting it is how some people will reach out on social media or via email to book in a call rather than using your links and buttons that are there, or even buying. Some people need that hand-holding for products, and that is because some people are unsure.

Some people don't wanna make the wrong decision. And now, because there's so much in this online world, we don't know if that booking link is out of date. We don't know if there is a process on the other end. Sometimes we can get confused. Some people just prefer to talk to someone first. So it's so interesting how in the last episode, which was episode 336, I'll put it in the show notes, how I talked about this not so linear funnel, and then literally a client shared me an example.

So really, a, it's not about that one static channel, which would be social media. It's not about staying stagnant. It's about creating that, that sort of ecosystem, as I mentioned, having [00:06:00] places for somewhere to go. And also, what we talked about in our conversation is how blogs or podcasts or YouTubes or emails can act as a really great resource for you when you are having sales conversations.

So maybe instead of going like, "Hi, how are you today?" Or, "Did you see my last proposal I sent you?" Or, "Are you gonna buy from me or what?" Like, you can send things like, "Hey, I just wrote this article on XYZ." And, and I cannot take credit for this because one of my amazing bootcampers, Em, sh- we sh- we were talking about this, how I don't do the sales process as well as I should, and she shared this with me, so I'll give her credit for that.

But basically... And this was, like, months ago. So, um, we were talking about it, how, yeah, we can use those as material. "Hey, I wrote this article on XYZ. It made me think of you and how we had that conversation about XYZ. Here's a link to my blog if you wanna check it out." And you're slowly building more of a relationship with this person.

So that's [00:07:00] where content can play a really great role in our social media funnel. So again, it's, it can be top of funnel, it can be bottom of funnel, it can be middle of funnel, but it is not your whole funnel. And I know I've been talking about this for years, but I know a lot of us are still relying heavily on social media, and I know a lot of us have this expectation that clients are going to come from social media just because we're showing up, and it's not always the case.

And actually, it can happen that someone is following you on various channels, but that may not be what makes them convert. But it's that consistent relationship that you've built with them over these social media platforms that is the last sort of part of the journey of them buying from you. And again, I always say this, it's like your goals.

Why are you on that channel? 'Cause it can be for very different reasons. People are on different channels for different reasons. Conversion may not always be the answer, which I talked about in that episode, things we need to learn, unlearn with marketing, if you haven't checked it out. I just wanna hijack this episode to tell you about something that is [00:08:00] generally helping and changing the game for business owners that I work with.

So if you're sitting there at 5:00 PM scrambling, not sure what to do, what to post, you are not alone, and I have in fact been there, along with many other businesses that I've worked with. Getting to my laptop, throwing something together, pushing it out there, throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Now, this is not strategy, and it really feels like survival. That is why I created Content Boot Camp. It is my signature program that takes you through the seven steps to create a really intentional and aligned content strategy for your business. One that is actually documented, is actually for you, and actually gets results.

So there's no more guessing, no more winging it, and no more content hamster wheel. By the end of your journey in Content Boot Camp, you'll have a clear plan on what to post, where to post it, and why, plus the confidence to actually execute it. And you're not doing it alone, because I do live calls all the time, so you'll get access to me.

I can help you with your strategy, and a community of other business owners that are doing the [00:09:00] same thing. You'll also get lifetime access, so if your business evolves and grows and changes, it will grow and evolve and change with you. So if you are ready to stop winging it and start being intentional with your marketing, get a strategy behind you, head to contentqueenmariah.com.

Check out Boot Camp, Content Boot Camp. I would love to see you there. The second one is building an email list that doesn't rely on social media. So as part of Boot Camp, some of the conversations that we've been having is how, what do we do in between maybe, like, launching something or having something for people?

And because we often rely on launches to keep momentum going in sales, and but selling the same thing consistently all the time can actually be a lot better for our nervous systems and our organization and planning. But how do we, when we're not maybe, like, hosting an event or running an open/close sort of launch situation, or before we have, like, a, a new product that's exciting or a sale or whatever it is, what are we doing?

We should be [00:10:00] building our email list, and these are conversations I'm having right now with clients as well. Building our email list between now and a big sale so we've got an email list to sell to, because we know people are more likely to buy from being emailed to from going to your website over from just seeing you on social media.

So really, where are you sending people? And where do you want them to go to get a taste of what you have to offer? Because that's where you can use your social media. But then that's when we get into email marketing territory. Like, how can we grow a list or a community that doesn't just depend on social media reach?

And really, for me, I think email is that best tool. Yes, we've got now, like, school communities and... But also at the end of the day, these platforms also have their own agenda. Email marketing's platform's agenda is you paying for the subscription of email marketing similar to a website, right? But you can download that data, you can export it, you can move it from one place to another.

It's yours. So how are [00:11:00] you showing up for your email list? How are you nurturing them and not just selling to them? Again, we know this stuff, but I see it happen time and time again where people do not n- nurture their email list until they are selling something And unfortunately, it's because we're busy.

It's because maybe we think, "Oh, like, does anyone care? What has that got to do with anything?" But it has everything to do with nurturing your audience. So you're not just here to sell to them. You're here to help them and guide them. So maybe it's weekly, maybe it's bi-weekly, monthly, possibly could be, depending on who you're speaking to.

I mean, I have a client, we do a monthly newsletter. They do some other comms throughout the month, but we would find they are already clients, so it would just be overkill. But if you are trying to sell to people, how are you showing up for them in your email list and not just waiting until you have something to sell, to talk about?

And that can be a challenge. What do I talk about [00:12:00] this week? What, what's happening? That's where our client, potential client, and client meetings come in handy, the conversations we're having in the DMs, the things that are happening in your everyday life. Like, I say this all the time, there's always stories happening.

You just have to open your eyes a little bit more and go, "Oh, how could that work for something?" That's why whenever I'm working with a client, voice noting me, sharing me what they're up to really helps me build content because that's what, that's what it comes down to. I sent an email to my list on Saturday, and it was about the fact that I went to a fish and chip shop recently, and I was really intrigued by the use of how language converts me.

And this has happened everywhere I go with food, words like specialty and signature and staff favorite and what we're known for or what we're famous for. Like, I want that because that's obviously what you do best, right? Those simple words converted me into an upsell of a side of salt and pepper calamari because of those words.

Or local, you know, locally sourced, locally... So, like, [00:13:00] that was something that happened to me, and I was able to turn it into a newsletter to maybe help my audience. Maybe some of them will go, "Oh, yeah, I could do that with my products. I could have most popular or, you know, what we recommend," and see how it, if it helps with conversion because sometimes those 1% marketing changes make a world of a difference.

So that is an example of something happening in my everyday life. Now, we can use things like notes, voice notes, AI to collate our ideas now that will help us turn it into something later. So if the question is, "How do I create good email marketing?" You do have to test it. You do have to experiment. For me personally, I'm really good at the education, the, the value-added stuff.

But when it comes to converting my email list, that needs work. So I am actively working on this. And this is where we can look at our numbers. Okay, I've got a really strong open rate, but my click rate is low based on benchmarks, right? So benchmarks can be 25 to... Sorry, [00:14:00] 15 to 25% open rate is industry standard, and then click rate, you know, 1 to 2 to 3%, or I think it's 1 to 2%, is average stan- average.

But the l- the more intimate your list, the higher that number should be, and the more your list grows, that w- number will, you will see it decrease. But if you can stay above those, that can help you get a lot more information. So for me, I need to work more on my click rates. I need to work more on getting people to where I want them to go.

So that's an experiment for me to have. Same with anyone doing email marketing. Once you start putting stuff out there, getting feedback through open rates and click rates, and then maybe potential emails, like I do get emails from people that reply back to me or share their thoughts or all those things, which is what I love.

That will give you direct feedback. So what makes amazing email marketing is knowing your audience really, but testing and seeing what's gonna work for you, telling more stories, giving people more insights, nurturing, but then also sharing how they can work with you. [00:15:00] Play around with it. I love a love letter style email where it's just kind of like amusing and with a story.

You could do those sort of block style, you know, typical EDMs with, you know, a blog article or, you know, sort of things. You can even, for example, have a love li- letter style email and then at the bottom have ways of working with you or events you've got coming up or things people could click through to explore more about you And some emails aren't there for conversion and clicks.

They are just there for nurturing. So your e- your open rate may decrease based on that, so you need to remember that when you are measuring your content. So don't overthink it. Just start sharing with your audience and seeing what they resonate with. And if, if you were to do weekly, you know, try and break it up.

Have educational stuff, have sales-type content, have stories that share tr- client transformations or, you know, play around with it. Bring in what I call unique buckets, which when you're doing your content strategy are things that make you unique, like I try to bring in travel. Some [00:16:00] people's unique bucket could be more like creative stuff, like they, they are a coach that loves creativity.

You could be obsessed with Harry Potter, so all your stuff's Harry Potter themed. Like, bring in your personality into those emails and start connecting with people. And the third point is social media can be a discoverable channel, like discoverability can come into play. So all of it becomes part of your search ecosystem.

So for example, your Instagram posts, your LinkedIn posts, um, things you post on Facebook are now all discoverable via AI, via Gemini, via Google Search. Everything is there for discovery. So a lot of your social media content could also be answering questions that people need the answers to, so you're building up your SEO, really.

But with this, also with social media being that sort of discovery place, using it as that springboard into what you want more people to see, as I mentioned in point one. So if you do have a blog, a YouTube, or a [00:17:00] podcast, how are you marrying those together to support your SEO? If you are doing a podcast on a certain topic, how are you using your social media to share that topic?

And really creating themes around your content. One, it makes it easier for repurposing. Two, it means, oh, yeah, social media is just about springboarding people to the next step. Then that lack of pressure comes with it, um, because what you're here to do is to showcase other work you've done, and then it all works really well with AI search, with Google Search, with SEO, all the things, and it just creates this really nice, harmonious ecosystem.

It's something that was done a lot 2019, 2020, and it's something that really works. Does that long-form piece of content take a little bit longer? Yes, but you save time in the long run from repurposing it and reusing it. And now with AI it does become a lot easier. We've got you know, AI video editing software that can chop bits from your YouTube or your podcast.

We have, you know, um, for example, [00:18:00] you've got a transcript to your podcast where AI can turn it into a blog. Of course, we always need to edit, but they are our words. It's not you getting it to create a blog from scratch. You know? You can have AI create carousels from blog articles you've done. So there's so much more we can do now, and again, it just creates that level of depth to what you are trying to do and alleviates that pressure from social media of always having to come up and think of things.

You can also use your social media for reactive things, pop culture moments, but you can... I've... When I do strategies, I always add in a slot for that for people to express themselves creativity, to... I always add those slots in to my strategies so people can express themselves creatively, but it's not a you have to do it all the time, right?

Like, there's times where we're not motivated or we're not inspired, but when we are inspired, we have that, that space where we can do that And really, the last thing I wanna touch on is we have to widen our understanding of what content [00:19:00] is. Content isn't just social media. Content can be lead magnets, it can be webinars, it can be downloads, blogs, all those things.

I do have a link in my show notes if you wanna do my quiz. It helps you understand what channels I should or could focus on based on where I naturally feel aligned. Social media is one of those answers but it could mean that social media is where you show up the most, but you could also use your strength in social media to create stuff in other places, right?

Collating social posts into blogs rather than blogs into social posts, et cetera. But really, the definition of content is a lot bigger and broader than we think. It isn't just narrowing down to social media. And again, creating that whole ecosystem. When people search, you know, what is content marketing, really it is sharing content-related articles, like articles as in like an object, of things to an audience in order to [00:20:00] share your brand and your business.

So again, we don't have to be limited. And for some people that are kind of over social media, it's like a, huh. You know, social media can just be that place where you share reactive things of what you're doing and repurpose content that you have somewhere else. You know, I've got clients that are focusing on webinars, and how we get people to those webinars is, yes, sharing on social media, but also doing things like outreach, um, sharing it on other platforms, and inviting people.

And then the content from every webinar gets used to just keep building that momentum. But again, consistency is really key here. If we try something for two minutes and then just go, "It doesn't work," then we're not going to see that momentum. For these webinars, our plan is to do them monthly so we can really see the evolution of that and, and just go, "Okay, if we do it for every month for a certain period of time, then we measure whether it's working."

So don't limit yourself just to social media when we think of content marketing And really, at the end of the day, it's about [00:21:00] longevity and ROI. I've seen this time and time again. Even my blogs come up in search that I created years ago. They're still getting read today, and there's... And now my job is to go in and make those blogs better so that people will click through to the next stage.

How can I convert people better with these blogs? So really, when you are creating anything, it's just, "How can I utilize it more? How can I build something consistent that's gonna help me?" And that's where content strategy really does come in. That's why I run these boot camps. And when people join them, they're like, "Huh, it's not as much work as I think."

It can be a little bit overwhelming to begin with, but once you understand it and get it, it's marketing, and it makes your life easier. And then you actually start to feel like you are marketing your business over just throwing things up there and just being active on social media. The amount of times that you see businesses on TikTok going, "Oh, I launched this and it failed," it's 'cause they hadn't set themselves up properly.

And so I'm gonna leave it there. If you have any other questions about email marketing or channels outside of social media, [00:22:00] send me a DM, email me, information@contentqueenmirah.com, and let me know if you ha- want me to dive deeper into just email marketing, et cetera. I'm here for it. But be a content queen or king, and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business.

Thank you so much for joining me today, and please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends. You can do this by adding it to your Instagram stories. You can share it with them, email it to them, whatever, message it to them on WhatsApp, but share it with them. Or you could leave a rate and review, 'cause that means it gets up in the charts.

We have amazing guests. We've got some really great guest interviews happening right now, one on SEO and SEO and AI world. Got one coming up about, um, Shopify and Klaviyo, so if you are a product-based business using those, that's gonna be great. Um, we have AI, human-first AI approaches. We've got... What other?

Uh, body language, like, some really cool stuff coming up, and people just messaging all the time, so it's actually a lot. I'm having to shut down and open up my interview slots, because otherwise I'll be interviewing [00:23:00] forever. But yeah, if you leave a rate and review, it just means we get more pitches. But I do want more pitches.

I'm not saying I don't. It just helps us get more amazing guests onto the show. And if you, again, have any podcast episodes you want me to talk about, email me, message me, all the things. Follow us on social media, Instagram, TikTok. If you haven't already joined our email list, you can. In the show notes is a free content strategy audio guide.

You'll join the mailing list via that and get a secret podcast on strategy. It's, it's quite good. And I'll talk to you next week. Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment